Tottenham Talk on Friday 30th
Tottenham Talk on Friday 30th
Good morning folks and welcome to another edition of Tottenham Talk, this time it's Tottenham Talk on Friday 30th...the weekend is nearly here.
Had a blood test yesterday at the Heart Failure Clinic and I'm up from around the 75 mark that I was for the entirety of my stay in hospital, that prevented stronger treatment to help the ticker recover, to 90 last time and 98 yesterday.
Still too low to get to work on my heart.
Eyes are generally OK as long as I get enough sleep, right that's the end of the health update, onto Tottenham Hotspur Blog News (THBN)
Well, well, well, the viewing figures keep rising, not just the overall figures but the individual post figures are on a steady rise too.
Whatever way you look at it there is a healthy increase there. a big thanks to everyone who has promoted the site by sharing, commenting on Social Media etc., both avid readers and haters. You're doing a wonderful job.
On Monday, during a dry spell I cleared the pond of the green algae that grows on top during hot weather and it reminded me of a Spurs clear out.
You do your best to get everything out that you don't want, but there are always bits left, just like there are always players left after a summer clear out, or attempted clear out in some windows.
Such is life, it can't all go perfect all the time but you don't get yourself down when it doesn't. You remain positive and things turn around quicker, just as Spurs will turn around quicker with a positive atmosphere surrounding the club.
Some just give up too easily, particularly when they haven't taken the time and trouble to understand or evaluate against the bigger picture and the stated club objectives.
Right, let's get on with some Tottenham Transfer Talk.
Simeon Tochukwu Nwankwo
No I have never heard of him either but that I doesn't man I can't dig to see who he is, why type of player he is, watch full match replays as well as YouTube highlights or read various scouting reports to find out and bring you an assessment.
Indeed there is coaching software that can help with the task, software that coaches use.
Simy, as he is known, is a striker we have been linked with, currently with Crotone in Serie B, however, they were in Serie A last season and were relegated after finishing 19th out of 20.
Location of Crotone in the Calabria region on the map below, might as well take the opportunity to educate you all as today's generation don't seem to know much about geography, if you go by the people they have on quiz shows on telly.
The 29-year-old (30 next May) Nigerian international (4 caps, 0 goals) striker has scored 30 goals and had 4 assists in 82 Serie A games (4,711 minutes = 52.34 full games).
He scores a goal at that level every 157 minutes and participates in a goal every 138.56 minutes.
Logic dictates, that he would be on the radar as a backup striker to Harry Kane, given his age and salary.
You can add him to the list I provided for you the other day. I'll look into him, as and when I need to, if I need to, but for now, he is just on the radar.
Last season he scored 20 goals, with 3 assists in 38 Serie A games (in minutes 32.69 full games), a goal every 147.1 minutes and a goal or assist (goal participation) every 127.91 minutes.
Clearly, Simy knows where the goal is and if I tell you he stands 1.98m (6ft 6in) tall, you can probably figure out what type of striker he is with minimal research!
Quick research though, reveals 8 of his 20 goals were penalties, which for me makes a significant difference to his output, especially as he doesn't provide many assists.
I'd immediately have question marks, incidentally, he only took 8 penalties all season in Serie A and scored the lot suggesting perhaps a strong mentality.
His 20 goals came from just 54 shots, 24 of which were on target, a 44.4% shooting accuracy.
He made 46 shot creating actions (1.41 per 90 mins).
That'll do for now on him, as I say, we'll return to him if necessary but I'd be surprised if we bought him or took him on loan.
Joe Hart
Joe Hart is considering an approach from Celtic and would want to be first choice goalkeeper if he went there. That is more important to him than wages at this stage of his career, if he is going to step down a level.
Spurs signed him on a free transfer, a keeper with the right attitude, but the question is, with a year left on his contract, how much should we charge for him?
Do we let him go for free, simply to help other clubs and remove him from our books or do we charge £5m (€5.88m - US$6.94m - AUS$9.45m) for him?
Alternatively we could simply charge a £1.44m loan fee to cover his wages or £1.04 million if the other club is paying him £7,500-a-week wages.
We will pay an agreed amount as a leaving present, a part of the wages we would have paid, so the loan fee only need to cover our expenses for him.
You get the drift of how any loan fee will be determined.
I suspect if Celtic can get him for free, which is what they have asked for I believe, then we would simply let him go and save his £27,500-a-week wages before bonuses.
Moussa Sissoko
There is a lot of interest in him from clubs around Europe and I think, with the club having made his position very clear, that he will be moving on.
The last 2 weeks of a transfer window is very much the busiest time for all clubs. I once saw figures that said 57% of all transfers were done in the last 2 weeks of a summer transfer window on average and 37% of those in the final week, if my memory serves.
I am sure he will be gone, but I would have thought to France or Italy rather than Asia or the Middle East or indeed the MLS. China is out of the equation, indeed I think we will see a decline of Chinese football over the next 5 years.
Harry Winks
Our Harry should be off to, where to will be his choice. There is no shortage of offers as you would expect.
It's only the kids who mouth of he's only a Championship player, the same as kids said about Harry Kane, hence why you don't listen to and block them on Social Media.
Everton have made an offer for Winks, he already knows Aston Villa are going to make a bid, Brentford have made an inquiry, Wolves, the list goes on.
If a club is selling a midfielder, Winks is an ideal replacement.
I have no idea what decision he will make, as I say, he has already been house hunting in the Midlands, but that was before Everton came a calling.
Aston Villa, if they keep Grealish or Everton seem the sensible moves to me.
Jack Clarke
Not a player I have mentioned much as I thought he would go out on loan again.
Personal opinion, but I don't think he has made the progress we would have hoped, but he is only 20 (21 in November) so there is still time.
There is plenty of interest in him from Championship clubs but Burnley and Newcastle United have made enquiries.
If Dwight McNeil leaves Burnley, and I would have thought a bigger club would come in for him, looks not a bad player each time I have seen him against us and on highlights programmes, then that could be the right destination for Leeds born Clarke.
As the crow flies, it's only 28 miles (45 km) between the two, 59 miles (96km) by road. Being close to his family and Premier League football for a season would surely appeal.
That's where I'm going to lay my hat, the common sense destination.
Japhet Tanganga
Turkish giants Galatasaray have enquired about taking the 22-year-old (23 next March) former England U-21 (2 caps) centre-back on a season-long loan.
Quite frankly he needs regular playing time and he isn't going to be a first choice with us. Whether Turkey is the right destination is another matter altogether.
Back in January, Tanganga revealed his desire to stay at Spurs for as long as possible, even to retirement.
"I've been at Tottenham for a long time, since I was ten and they've helped me a lot. This club is fantastic, the staff, the coaches, everyone has just helped me.
"The club means a lot to me, having been with them for so long. Of course I'd love to stay with them as long as I could and go on until I retire.
"But that's for the club to deal with me and for me to focus on the pitch and deliver as much as I possibly can."
I would have thought either Burnley or Southampton would be better destinations for him. He stays in the Premier League, as Spurs would prefer, and gets valuable game time to develop.
We can have a better defender back next season and reassess the situation, at least that's my view, but I'm now hearing that isn't Nuno Espirito Santo's.
Nuno, I believe, wants to keep him, which would give us, Romero, Dier, Rodon, Tanganga and one other, Milenković possibly.
No I haven't forgotten our Colombian, I fully expect him to be gone.
Dušan Vlahović
The reports of us now moving for Serbian international Dušan Vlahović are very real.
We see the 21-year-old (22 next January) as the long term replacement for Kane but the idea is for him to play with Kane for a season to adjust to the Premier League, a new country, a new culture, a new language, a new coach, a new environment, at a new club in a new stadium.
We have seen it can take time for new signings to settle and we want to help him have the best chance of success the season after.
Ilaix Moriba
Tottenham are watching the situation of 18-year-old (19 next January) Ilaix Moriba, a highly promising central midfielder at Barcelona.
He is refusing to sign a new contract with his agents demanding a wage increase the club is not prepared to pay.
Marca report that they are miles apart after a season where he played 18 times for the senior team.
He has only a year remaining on his contract so to force the issue the Spanish club have dropped him to the B squad and he isn't allowed to train with the first team.
They have also not picked him for their pre-season training camp in Germany.
In 356 minutes (basically 4 full games) in LaLiga, across 14 games, he has scored once and assisted 3 times.
Moriba has played 11 minutes in the Champions League and 105 minutes in the Copa del Rey (Spanish equivalent of the FA Cup).
MK Dons v Tottenham Hotspur
A few things caught my eye during our pre-season victory against MK Dons.
Oliver Skipp
Promising player who chips the ball a little too much for my liking, that means the receiving player has to take longer to control the ball and there is a greater chance of a mistake or the side losing the ball.
Something for him to be wary of and on a couple of occasions when he ran forward with the ball, he didn't seem to know what to do with it, therefore did nothing and lost the ball.
In the Premier League, when he is rotated into the team, he'll need to be more decisive.
Down to the collective, but it was far too easy to get behind our defence and we were cut open on several occasions that better finishers would have taken advantage of.
Steven Bergwijn
He movement was better, more diagonal runs and used his pace to get in behind the defence, but he doesn't seem to have improved his finishing.
This is something I have banged on about for years, that we must be more clinical in these games to train the mind to be ruthless in front of goal.
It is totally a mental thing and rather shows how poor we are in developing the players mentality.
Even Nuno Espirito Santo mentioned it after the game, basically saying we had more chances and that when we are through on goal we must score.
He sees the problem, are we going to work mentally to fix it, I doubt it.
No point looking good until you get in front of goal, scoring is what wins games, scoring is what counts.
Just as MK Dons got in behind our defence too easily, we played a lot of balls inside their full-backs to get behind their defence so were a lot more creative than we often are. Encouraging.
Alfie Whiteman
Alfie Whiteman showed why we are happy to let Joe Hart leave.
We signed Pierluigi as a number two and Alfie looked a decent keeper to be number three, unless he is sent out on loan.
Gave away a penalty and saved it, plus a couple of decent saves from free-kicks and not afraid to command his area, coming out to punch danger away in a crowded box on several occasions.
Some of the punches could have been cleaner but the desire and willingness were there, good to see.
Finally folks, both the messages from Toby Alderweireld and Érik Lamela show the feeling players have for Spurs when they have spent time at the club.
Former midfielder Wilson Palacios is another.
"It was a spectacular time for me at Spurs, I had the best time in England. I enjoyed it to the fullest. The confidence that the fans gave me was incredible. Spurs represents a lot to me. I carry the club in my heart.”
1 comment
Happy days Bob